Marc Charbonneau

Tara Hunt posted a great article on Vitamin today about the role of community in software development. Although written for the web 2.0 app crowd, the same philosophy applies to any platform.

Principle #2. Design to delight There are plenty of great articles on Vitamin that help you with this, but a really good rule of thumb to stick with is that details should not be overlooked. In fact, scaling back on the features (especially upon first launch) and concentrating on making each step of the process delightful (i.e. the language on the error pages, the ease of the signup process, and so on) is essential. There is a great deal of competition in the online application space right now. We certainly can’t compete on price (since most everything is free), so we need to compete on experience. Take a look at every application that you can’t live without and go through each step. What you will most likely discover is that the designers have sacrificed features for detail.

Exactly.